Start your review of Shinto: The Kami Way. At pages, the book is extremely concise, and it feels even shorter than that in the reading. It is meant only as introductory text, so naturally, criticism of its brevity or incompleteness is not really fair; but while those already familiar with Shinto may learn a new thing or two, they will not likely find themselves with a deeper or enriched understanding of the kami no michi.
A weakness of the book is its age, which is definitely starting to show. Fifty years ago, with the Second World War a very recent memory, it's understandable that a Japanese scholar would want to tailor this book to Western audiences by emphasizing the peaceful and humanistic aspects of Shinto; there is, consequently, and tendency to gloss over its role in Japanese fascism, which receives only brief mention.
Some readers may also find the brief description of the miko rather patronizing, as it does not indicate the full historical significance of this women's office, which descends from early female shamanism; some mention of the greater historical importance of this office, compared with its increasing marginalization under the Tokugawa and Meiji periods, would help balance the picture Ono provides of the quaint priest's daughter who performs the sacred dances and engages in other unspecified "minor duties.
May 21, Nimue Brown rated it really liked it. My only prior sense of Shinto came from watching Miyazaki films, realising this is a creator who is drawing on a tradition, and that I want to know more about the tradition. It provided me with some very interesting surprises, and I have come to the tentative conclusion that Shinto makes a very interesting comparison with Druidry. Sh My only prior sense of Shinto came from watching Miyazaki films, realising this is a creator who is drawing on a tradition, and that I want to know more about the tradition.
Shinto honours spirits of place, and ancestors kami , using ritual and creativity. It has a long and complex history, influenced by Buddhism and Confucianism, caught up in politics and the development of the nation. Shinto is inherently Japanese. It honours the land of Japan, the ancestors of Japan — I cannot see that you could do it anywhere else without being culturally Japanese.
Also interesting to note, it has no sacred book, no doctrine, very little authoritarian structure, and yet it works and other religions and bodies are able to recognise it. Given the trouble pagans have trying to get people to grasp the idea of religions without sacred books, this is a very useful thing to have. The book religions have adapted and changed to fit into other cultures, but that sense of religion transcending culture is, I think, out there. However, when you start considering religion as inherent to culture, part of the underpinning fabric of a society, it is necessary to consider it in very different ways.
This book does convey something of the relationship between culture and belief, and the impossibility of considering them as separate in this context.
For a religion that permeates life and does not separate mundane and sacred out as western traditions do, this is another useful point of reference.
View 1 comment. I am of course a massive weeabo, and that is more than clear to anyone that follows this account. But for some reason even with that I never tried to learn more about Shinto the native religion of Japan. Now this little book is a good introduction, very concise and useful It helped a lot, because I have seen references to Shinto in japanese media I just had a vague idea of what was going on but now everything is more clear.
May 26, Matthew Cirilli rated it really liked it. This is an excellent introductory text for Shinto. The last chapter is the most interesting because it actually gets into the real belief system. Other chapters involve a lot of information about shrines and the historical background of the religion. Jul 15, Dani rated it it was amazing Shelves: I asked for this book for Christmas to help with my research for two different YA Japanese Fantasy novels I am working on.
I felt that this gave some good insight of what it is like at Shinto shrines and how Shintoism is engrained in a lot of daily life actions in modern Japan. I found it to be quite fascinating, as we don't learn much about this religion in schools or while looking at cultures in general. A lot is said about Buddism, but not much is said about Shintoism, and this book goes over I asked for this book for Christmas to help with my research for two different YA Japanese Fantasy novels I am working on.
A lot is said about Buddism, but not much is said about Shintoism, and this book goes over a bit of why that is. I wished it went a little more on the changes throughout history and what actions changed or didn't with a timeline, as my novel takes place in different periods through Japan.
I highly recommend to anyone who wants to learn more about this religion, whether it be because they are interested in Japanese culture, research for something they are writing, or if they want to visit shrines in Japan and understand what is respectful and what is not. I can't wait to visit Japan and pay my respects to the kami at various shrines.
Sep 06, Nicholas Pozo rated it really liked it Shelves: religion. Although the writing is a little dry at times, and often becomes a little too encyclopaedic, this is still a worthwhile introduction to Shinto. The style is more a product of the broad ground the book tries to cover in such a short space. The Kami Way covers in broad strokes the most important aspects of Shinto, which is what you want from an introduction to any topic.
However, I found that in many aspects Ono seems to hold back from actually engaging with the real substance of the topic. It's a Although the writing is a little dry at times, and often becomes a little too encyclopaedic, this is still a worthwhile introduction to Shinto.
It's as though he has decided at an early stage that the reader will not be able to engage meaningfully at anything beyond a surface level examination, and so with a few rare exceptions, that's more or less where the book stays. Still a valuable reference, all minor issues aside.
And for the most part largely enjoyable. View 2 comments. This book is disappointingly brief, but understandably so. It's intended as a primer on Shinto, and as such assumes less than basic knowledge on the part of the reader.
Shinto itself is also difficult to condense or summarize, as the author explains. It's the kind of subject that will either result in an easily digestible beginner's pamphlet or a dense, university level thesis delving into intricacies that only an expert could understand. A large part of the difficulty is actually rooted in simp This book is disappointingly brief, but understandably so.
A large part of the difficulty is actually rooted in simplicity. Shinto is a folk religion with no founder, no supreme deity, and no authoritative scripture. Its traditions arose from the mists of antiquity through popular ritual, the complete origins of which are now lost.
Even using the word "Shinto" to describe "a" religion is somewhat inadequate, kind of like trying to describe "Hinduism. The Christian West tends to approach comparative religions in a problematic way.
Whether consciously or not, it is always asking other religions questions like "who is your Jesus? With something like Shinto, however, it is especially limiting because these questions have no answer. They are simply the wrong questions to ask entirely. Shinto is "the way of the kami. Technically, humans are kami as well, albeit not fully realized ones this comes only after death.
Kami can also embody concepts and inanimate objects. Worshiping the kami is a matter of devotion and ritual. As such, it is concerned more with "orthopraxy" than "orthodoxy. The richness and depth comes from the heart of the worshiper themselves, and the purity and sincerity with which they approach the act of worship. The result is remarkably compelling, and as anyone who has been to a shrine before can attest, unmistakably solemn.
You get from the kami what you put in. All religions are like this in a way, but Shinto places few barriers between the human and divine realms. In addition to being kami ourselves, Shinto originally stressed direct connection with nature.
One of the oldest shrines in Japan, at Omiwa, has no main hall for a kami to reside in. That is because the mountain on which the shrine stands IS the kami. Also like all religions, Shinto has evolved over the course of its existence. It encompasses worship in the home before private shrines, limited to only a single family, to shrines like at Ise, whose spiritual authority is over all Japan. The lowliest peasant from ancient times had his own way of worshiping the kami, and the Emperor himself has one.
Shrines can cover thousands of acres or be little more than a box on the roadside. All of these are expressions of the same faith, despite being very different in appearance. Then there was the dark period when Shinto became a tool of State violence and control.
After the Meiji Restoration, Shintoism and its worship was placed under official government organization. Shrines became government property and priests were appointed by bureaucrats.
The reason this happened is complex and didn't happen overnight, but was closely tied to Japan's quest to modernize while simultaneously maintaining a "pure" culture. It is said that the twin weapons of western colonial ambition were the Gun and the Bible. Japan, despite its two centuries of isolation, was a keen observer of western methods when it came to conquest and expansion.
Not to say that Japanese Shinto priests were unhappy about the official backing. Contrary to what many might think, Shinto was actually on the decline for most of Japan's history prior to Meiji.
Buddhism was by far the more popular religion, and had even absorbed many of its practices it was not uncommon for shrines and temples to share the same space.
The modernization of Japan served the more fanatically faithful well in the short-term, but like many zealots who embraced government countenance in the past, it came back to haunt them later. Meiji, followed by the loss of the war, had an interesting effect on Shinto culturally. Shinto shrines were patronized by government officials, but this was considered no different from regular citizens doing the same except in terms of scale or wealth. The result was more of an in-between state in which Shinto was not disconnected from the government, but not officially attached to it either.
This changed under Meiji when official control was made explicit, and again after the war when the Occupation government officially dissolved this connection permanently, even forcing the Emperor to renounce his divinity. This historically rapid back-and-forth between extremes rocked Shinto in a way it had never experienced before, and its a wonder it survived at all.
As Ono points out, it is also a wonder that Shinto was used for such dark aims at all. It is so fundamentally simple and nature-based that it's hard to see how it could be twisted into serving a military-industrial juggernaut. Believing that almost everything has a kami which must be respected should promote harmony and peace, not mass slaughter and devastation. Perhaps it only goes to show that no matter what a religion or philosophy says, people can bend it toward whatever purpose they want, good or bad.
In closing it is also worth mentioning Shinto's approach to other religions and the rest of the world outside Japan. Ono rather baldly states that Shinto is a "racial" religion--it is deeply rooted to the ethnic identity of the Japanese people. This concept is usually off-putting to westerners since it is not egalitarian or universal, and modern sensibilities tend to view such things as provincial or quaint at best. It is interesting to note however as Japan continues to move forward into the 21st century, and as they grapple with what it truly means to be "Japanese" in a global society.
There is a growing demographic of Japanese citizens and residents who are either not ethnically Japanese or are racially mixed. What does Shinto mean to them?
Are they allowed to participate in its rites? Do the kami hear them? Can kami even have power outside of Japan? Perhaps Shinto will eventually embrace a more heterogeneous vision as it struggles to adapt to a Japan whose native inhabitants are increasingly leaving it. I know there is already an officially recognized shrine in Washington state, headed by a priest who is not Japanese. It was established well after Ono wrote this edition, and I'm curious if he ever knew about it or commented on it.
Insightful I found this to be a handy little book which provided for me a good launch point into the practices and beliefs of Shinto. It does not delve deeply into any particular topic but is rather a surface-level primer, and it does that well. There are good sketch illustrations and photos throughout and I found it to read quickly and easily. I would recommend this as an intro to Shinto. Aug 19, S. Kallahan rated it liked it. Read for research. This introduction unveils Shinto's spiritual characteristics and discusses the architecture and function of Shinto shrines.
Further examination of Shinto's lively festivals, worship, music, and sacred regalia illustrates Shinto's influence on all levels of Japanese life. Fifteen photographs, numerous drawings and Dr. Ono's text introduce the reader to two millennia of indigenous Japanese belief in the kami and communal life. Shinto the Kami Way. User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in.
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